Photo: JOSEPH PREZIOSO / AFP / Getty Images
Sharing a locker room with transgender athlete Lia Thomas has become a point of contention for her fellow varsity swim teammates of Pennsylvania, since they feel uncomfortable.
“It is definitely uncomfortable because the Lia’s body has male parts and the dressing room is still exclusively for women,” a member of the team told DailyMail.com in an interview.
Although Lia covers herself with a towel at times, there is a fair amount of nudity, the swimmer said. She and other members of the team have glimpsed his residual manhood.
He stated that the members of the team have expressed their concern to the coach, trying to expel Thomas from the women’s locker room, but got nowhere.
“They basically told us that we can’t ostracize Lia by not having her in the locker room and that there’s nothing what can we do about it, that basically we have to turn around and accept it, or we can stop using our own wardrobe, “he said.
” It’s really annoying because Lia doesn’t seem to care how she makes others feel”, continued the swimmer.
“The 35 team members must accept being uncomfortable in our own space and dressing room because of the feelings of only one”.
The swimmer, who remained anonymous, said that handling that UPenn has given to the locker room issue is emblematic of the school’s overall approach to the Lia Thomas controversy, with the school going to great lengths to make Thomas feel welcome without seeming to care how it affects her teammates.
“The school was so focused on making sure Lia was okay, and everything they could do for her, that they didn’t even think about the rest of us,” the team member told DailyMail.com.
“It seems that the women who built this program and the people who were here before Lia don’t matter. And it’s frustrating because Lia doesn’t really seem to mind all the attention at all. Actually, she seems like she enjoys it. It has affected all of us much more than her.”
The school issued a brief statement last month that it was offering mental health services to its student-athletes.
Thomas, 35 years old, plans to break his long silence and share his story exclusively with Sports Illustrated, it was announced Wednesday.
The NCAA, which established rules allowing transgender athletes to compete after completing a year of hormone therapy, recently washed its hands of announcing that the participation of transgender athletes will now be determined by each sport’s national governing body.
In Thomas’s case, this would fall to USA Swimming, which is considering a new policy.
“USA Swimming believes strongly in inclusion and the opportunity for all athletes to experience the sport e of swimming in a manner consistent with their gender identity and expression”, she declared last week.
“We also firmly believe in the actions of competitive fairness and, like many, we do our best to learn and educate ourselves on the proper balance in this space.”
Thomas said he hopes any change comes before the NCAA championship in March, where he has a chance to break NCAA all-time records set by Olympic gold medalists Missy Franklin and Katie Ledecky.
Thomas, who was on the team UPenn men’s swim during her first three years, she has been breaking women’s swimming records.
Her teammates discussed the possibility of protesting at a swimming competition, but ultimately decided it was too risky as they might be flagged as transphobic s.
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